Kaleidoscopic Goa: A Cultural Atlas

An atlas is a graphical or pictorial collection using maps with symbols and scales depicting diverse aspects of any geographical region in space and time. Atlases provide condensed view of the geographical knowledge. If imaginatively prepared, the atlases can throw light on political, economic, demographic, social, ethnic, cultural, ecological aspects of any region in a concise manner. Culture is the way of life of people which is visible in their arts, social systems, habits, customs and their religion. It is an assemblage of arts, customs and beliefs. It is generally related to excellence in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits etc. in a particular form or stage of civilization. Exclusively, cultural atlas is a theme unique in understanding cultural geography of any region in a nutshell with the help of simple maps and appropriate graphics. There is no dearth of research topics for a sub-continental country like India. However there are unexplored research areas and certain regions like Goa are relatively neglected. There is abundance of material on the colonial period of Goa but much remains to be investigated and analysed about the pre-colonial period and the post colonial cultural scenario. Any researcher in Goan art and culture is hampered by the relative lack of primary resources, relating to the prolonged pre-Portuguese era. Published studies have largely ignored the wealth of the information on art and culture available in various forms of Goan folklore such as folk ongs, folk tales, folk dances, folk theatric forms, arts, crafts and rituals. Modern ethno-methodological approaches need to be adopted in Goa for utilising and recording this unpolluted store-house of traditional oral folk archives to build a cohesive and integrated artistic and cultural sequence of the origin and evolution of the Goan society.